(CNN) — A US Coast Guard Academy official says top leaders directed her to lie to sexual assault victims and Congress, making her an unwitting accomplice in a coverup of decades of abuse. The agency added that Coast Guard officials recently interviewed a now-retired Coast Guard officer present during those victim meetings, and she said the talking point was never brought up. The Coast Guard was forced to request that President Joe Biden withdraw and resubmit the names of dozens of Coast Guard officers for promotions from the Senate confirmation process in April. “They didn’t care about the impact on us or why we wanted to share this information,” said one former Coast Guard Acadamy cadet who was visited by a Coast Guard criminal investigator in 2018. She said seeing that so many others were speaking up about how they felt betrayed by the Coast Guard gave her hope that it would now be impossible for the Coast Guard to ignore them.

Source: CNN June 10, 2024 19:02 UTC